Gabriela Garrido, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History Río Seco, told La Nación the scene was chaotic when he arrived and the whale was surrounded by 50 people. He said some children were kicking the animal.

"I was shocked to see this situation of lack of control," he said. "Because how do you tell people not to touch it, to take distance, I had a lot of anger."

Garrido hopes to educate residents so something similar does not happen in the future.

"It is very painful to understand how a person is able to perform such an act," he said.

Anelio Aguayo, a veterinarian and an expert in marine mammals at the Chilean Antarctic Institute, believes the whale starved to death. The animal's body did not have bruising that would indicate collision with a boat.

The whale was thin and had seaweed in its stomach, which was probably a desperate substitute for its normal diet of plankton.

The Chilean Navy arranged a perimeter to keep everyone except researchers away from the whale. Eventually, the whale's skeleton will be delivered to the Museo Seco Natural Río Seco.